1998 Specialized Hardrock

26 inch isn’t dead:1998 Specialized Hardrock

Introduction

Last autumn I felt the itch to start a new bike project. I enjoy having a project during winter times, it makes me look forward to spring and riding bikes in the sun. I’m not much of an offroad kinda guy. Even my gravel bike rarely sees any dirt except during bikepacking. Moreover, in winter I even run slick tires on the Cinelli, so that combined with fenders, it makes for a more comfortable road riding experience, especially when commuting. Of course, that means that I have no bike to ride offroad during the winter months. Et voila, I had a reason for yet another bike in the collection. Especially in Flanders, offroad riding is big in winter. A lot of local bike clubs organize winter rides through the sloppy mud in the cold and rain. It’s a completely distinct cycling scene compared to the road, and one that I really never did experience fully. This time, compared to my last build, the Giant CFR, I wanted to keep the budget really tight, and sought to spend maximum 50-100 euro on a base frame/bike with hopefully as many things still useable. Finally, I landed on a 1998 Specialized Hardrock with a Rockshox suspension fork, for which I paid 50 euros.

Concept

After a quick assessment of what I had in store, the frame still seemed in really good condition, as did the bottom bracket (spinning freely without any coarse feeling or play!). The headset and fork suspension felt quite stiff, so I hoped I would be able to save those with a deep clean and some fresh grease. Brakes definitely needed new cables, but the calipers and levers all still seemed pretty OK. Drivetrain-wise everything seemed seized and rusty AF, albeit a deep clean + new cables would have probably revived the old 3x9 drivetrain. However, I was kinda set to upgrade the bike to a more “modern” MTB groupset, so I decided to ditch the old drivetrain and front derailleur to convert the bike to a 1x. Basic MTB shifter and derailleurs are apparently dirt cheap, so it seemed like a good idea to do it this way. I wanted to keep the crankset, as the polished silver color still looked really good and hoped I would get away with a bodge 1x by just mounting the middle ring to the crankset with a chain catcher. Nevertheless, changing to 1x also meant I would need new wheels, since the hub on the old wheels couldn’t take a modern 10 or 11 speed cassette. I didn’t feel to bad about this, as the wheels were banged up pretty hard and restoring them would have been quite the painful operation. Furthermore I would need a new saddle, pedals, some grips, bottle cages, … all in all it seemed pretty reasonable to build this thing into a fun mud-machine without breaking the bank.

Stripping and building

Stripping the bike went reasonably smooth and fast. After spraying a good amount of WD-40 around the bolts, all of them came loose pretty easy. The only thing that needed a bit (actually, a lot) of convincing to get loose, was the fork. Finally, some not so gentle taps with a rubber mallet made the stubborn fork pop out the frame. Both fork and headset bearings came out really rusty, but honestly looked quite fine after cleaning them, so I figured it would be a safe bet to just re-grease and use them. To my surprise, the fork only had one actual spring in one of the legs. Apparently this is normal for cheap-ass old suspension forks.

The build itself was a really pleasant experience. Having all cables external and only one derailleur to set up really is a joy. I managed to find some decent looking 26 inch rim brake wheels with a suitable hub and chose a Shimano 1x10 drivetrain. For tires I chose 2 inch Conti Crosskings, not so fast, but they should provide ample of grip for muddy times. I’m also not quite sure about the tire clearance on this particular frame is, but figured 2 inch should be a safe bet. White outer cables were a must on this bike in my opinion and I also think the blue grips look quite good. Silver bottle cages match the other silver components on the bike. The only real hickup during the build, was that the 10 speed change didn’t fit the original middle chainring. So, I needed a 74 BCD chainring, ideally a narrow-wide one, but it was not easy finding one. Finally I ended up with a 32T chainring from TA Specialites, originally meant as the inner chainring of 3x road drivetrain. To compensate for the lack of a narrow-wide chainring, I decided to mount a chain catcher. That, in combination with the clutched derailleur should prevent any chain dropping for most types of riding.

The Ride

At the moment of writing I only did one “real” ride with this bike, a 73 km mixed surface loop with a variety of non-technical dirt surfaces and asphalt. First things first, the bike is definitely too small for me. I have to pull the seatpost all the way out (a few cm past the min. insertion point) to get to saddle at a rideable height. This results in a quite aggressive fit with my weight leaning quite forward, so yeah, not the most comfortable for really long or technical rides, but on this ride, which was a good representation of intended use, it really was not that bad. Next to size, the other big limitation is that the 32T front ring in combination with the 26 inch wheels spins out really quick. It didn’t annoy me on the dirt, but on some asphalt sections going 28-30km/h had me spinning at a high cadence. Other than those two points, the bike is really fun to ride though. Due to its small size and wheels it feels super nimble and aggressive to ride in dirt and around corners. The handlebar is pretty small as well compared to modern MTBs, which make it initially feel really nervous, but super fun at the same time. This is the kind of bike that takes you back to being a kid and skidding around the rear wheel all the time. The derailleur shifts super snappy and the brakes are really responsive as well. The headset does show some wear, so the steering can feel a bit rough sometimes, but nothing too problematic. I might chance the headset later on in the lifespan depending on how much I end up riding with this bike.

Conclusion

It’s safe to say I’m still not an offroad kinda guy. Since I build this bike up, I only managed one offroad ride… Also, the Cinelli is back in gravel mode, so I probably wont be using this bike a lot until autumn/fall, maybe it will see some more filthy action than. Nevertheless, this project was a lot of fun, and even if I only get a couple of rides out of this every year, it still was worth it! So, just like the CFR, I’m keeping it for now, but might sell it later down the line if it really doesn’t get used enough and/or I need space and money for a new build.

Gallery and full parts list below.

Gallery

Full parts list

Component type	Name
Frame	Specialized Hardrock 1998
Saddle	Selle Italia
Brake pads	Shimano M70T3 V-Brake Brake Shoes
Grips	ESI Grips Racer’s Edge
Brake cable housing	capgo Blue Line Brake Cable Housing
Brake cable	capgo Blue Line Brake Cable
Shifter	DEORE SL-M4100 10-speed
Derailleur	DEORE RD-M5120
Chain guide	XLC Chain guide CR-A18 - 34.9mm
Chain	DEORE CN-HG54 10-speed
Chainring	TA Specialites Zelito 32T
Cassette	deore cs m4100 11-46
Outer shift cable	Shimano OT-SP41 Shift Outer Casing
Wheels	M-Wave 26”
Tires	Continental Cross King Wire - 26x2.00”
Stickers	Rock Shox
Bottle cages	BBB Cycling EcoTank BBC-01
Pedals	Shimano
Inner tubes	Continental MTB - 26”